The violence is baked in. The bureaucracy exists to legitimize & disguise the violence, not the other way around.

You can't liberate yourself with systems built to oppress you.

Unfortunately there is no third option where you can keep asking nicely and "pursuing the right channels" & be made free.

So what do you want? Do you want to be a good obedient citizen or do you want liberation?

Can't have both.

When it really comes down to it, those are the choices. Are you willing to accept that there is nothing you can do to win your freedom or are you going to reimagine your options?

Ok, it's pretty simple, either you reach a point where you say "I give up" & just submit to tyranny & oppression because the "right way to do things" doesn't work or you reconsider what the "right way" could potentially be.

@CatDragon
Fuck yeah. Honestly most adults need to be reminded how to be loud & make ourselves heard. It gets trained out of us. Whistles help!

@PapyrusBrigade
Thank you for the info! I will pass it along.

Yes, we do need a lot *more* resistance, but resistance builds. These are the little tiny seedlings of resistance. They have to be nurtured, for sure, but they are growing.

A little fire has to be slowly built up so that it isn't smothered & extinguished. The wood has to dry out before it will catch flame, & you need to fan that flame to get it to spread.

Small things can become big things.

You know in Andor when the Corpos show up on Ferrix, & everyone starts banging these metal things to alert the whole community that the cops are out & about (& frighten & confuse the Corpos).

That's what ICE whistles are. They are one small act of solidarity. One small declaration of resistance. One little thing.

I am really excited for the energy being created here.

We have to understand & have realistic expectations. This is one little moment. Some people who got really energized will go back to passivity. These actions won't make the Trump admin stop kidnapping & killing people.

But they can a) help save *some* people & b) build up people's "resistance muscles" & show them they are not alone in believing that something needs to be done.

This is not the tipping point, but this is growth.

But about free whistles being persuasive: sometimes it's good to think in terms of marketing. What are the little "hacks" that can get someone to make the choice you want them to?

Some of them are really fucking simple, & they often start with gimmicks like "a free gift".

All this visibility is valuable too.

Whistles being handed out all over the place, people out on the streets, whether in crowds or watching out for the smaller neighborhoods, even street art & flyers, this shows people who have been afraid or unsure that they too could be doing more, & if they did, they wouldn't be alone.

Plus, there actually is some real potential power in giving out those whistles for free.

See, people don't like to turn down free stuff. "Completely free?" So you might pick one up with vaguely good intentions, but no expectation to actually use it.

But now you have it. Now if a situation came up where you might use it, it's burning a hole in your pocket, so to speak. You have the thing right there, shouldn't you do something?

Small things can sometimes be incredibly persuasive.

ICE whistles may be "small potatoes", but they have proven to be helpful in many scenarios to get people out obstructing the Feds. Probably even more important though are the burgeoning relationships with both "ordinary people" & organizers in his local community.

He says he sees people in the neighborhood out on the streets patrolling in case of ICE. That's gotta be a big deterrent for the Feds. People are literally going out & proactively getting ready in case they roll up.

ICE agents do NOT want to deal with that shit.

My little brother (lives close to where Renee Good was shot & killed in Minneapolis) has been 3D printing ICE whistles & handing them out to neighbors & giving some to local businesses & churches to hand out. I'm really proud that his response is action, not fear.

The George Floyd protests play a part in this. The local places he knows will gladly hand out whistles are people he knows from 2020. All that commotion was NOT for nothing. A lot of people learned about organizing for the 1st time.

Let's call it like it is: the Trump coalition has decided to go ahead & create vassal states that answer directly to the President of the US.

It's an Empire in the most literal sense, with an emperor at the top of it.

It won't be Emperor Trump for much longer, & we'll see where it goes from here, but the declaration is clear: it's time for the plundering to begin in earnest. Not behind closed doors. Not couched in the intricacies of bureaucracy. No, we're in the age of daylight robbery.

This is why I spent the weekend making watercolors. I had to remind myself that we may live in a world of thugs & robbers, but I still exist, & my experience of the world still matters.

Exploitation & violence don't erase us or the beauty we find in our lives.

I'm not turning to art to forget what's happening or close my eyes. I'm turning to art to remind myself of the things I live for, the things that make resistance worth it.